You wouldn’t believe how many times I have heard this! I cannot stress this enough, online marketing is far too important to let just anyone deal with it.

So your web developers build websites, that certainly doesn’t qualify them to do online marketing. My favourite analogy is the racing driver and the race mechanic. They are both fundamental to racing a car but you wouldn’t expect one to undertake the others  role. This goes for your company’s website. Your web developer could possibly undertake the role of online marketing but they aren’t necessarily the most suitable choice.

You might wonder why I am so skeptical? Let me explain… When web developers try and offer online marketing services as an added value service in addition to their core services they try to maximise the revenue they generate from you.  Spending more of your budget might be good for your web developer but it isn’t necessarily the best decision for your business. Obviously, revenue generation is fundamental to all businesses but in this instance the individual aims of both businesses has a chance of being in conflict. It goes without saying you should only ever embark on a business relationship where this isn’t the case.

If you are happy you aren’t in conflict, what about their competences? Are your web developers capable of delivering online marketing to a high enough standard to provide you with the genuine value your business essentially requires? This is where you need to do your home work. The first thing to find out is, are they just starting out with online marketing? If they are new to it they cannot claim to be experts. Similarly, do they have a proven track record and bona fide clients with significant testimonials? Again, if they don’t they cannot back up the claims of their abilities then you must question their expertise and experience. Next, do they have in-house experts or are they simply intending to farm everything out to other companies and take a cut? If they aren’t dealing with it themselves then they are simply brokering. Do you really want to pay anyone a margin to source you another service supplier? You might have good reason to do this such as ease of management and having a contract with only one company, but make sure you understand the relationship fully before you do. It won’t make it easier to get things done by putting more people between you and and the person actually dealing with it.

So when your web developer tells you they do online marketing, think are they actually capable of delivering what my business needs?  If the answer to this is no then be aware that there are other alternatives.

Online marketing is a relatively new field to some extent with new techniques being continually developed. With the exception of a select few nobody could truely claim to know everything about it, myself included. Beware of anyone who does! If they don’t own Google, Microsoft or other global superpower, or can back it up through the billions in the bank they have accumulated through this knowledge then I suggest you tread very carefully before entangling yourself in legally binding contracts or handing over the reigns of your online marketing to a self proclaimed guru.

Now I don’t want to tell you all online marketing agencies are snake oil salesman, in fact far from it. But, in my experience there are plenty that are. So how can you tell which one is and which one isn’t? Well to begin with you need to forget about finding an agency, your first question should be ‘What am I am looking to achieve through online marketing?’ and your second, ‘What is my online marketing strategy?’.

Until you know what you are looking to achieve through online marketing you should stay clear of O.M Agencies  altogether. There are not many companies that will turn away business of value to them irrespective of whether or not it provides value to you. Therefore evaluate what you are looking to achieve through online marketing first, then decide if you want to use an agency or not.

Your decision to use an agency should be based on whether that agency is capable of delivering what you need and whether that delivery is going to be cost effective against the return you expect to see.